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Chicago to Use 'Municipal Marketing' to Help Close Budget Gap, But at What Cost?

October 30, 2012, 1pm PDT

Chicago is planning to join the list of cities monetizing their public spaces and facilities by selling ad space on city property. Past efforts by the city to launch so-called “municipal marketing” efforts have been beset by delays and missteps.

Alex Keefe reports that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration is rolling out a plan for "leasing dozens of billboards on city-owned property, selling advertising
space on downtown trash bins and finding a corporate sponsor for the
city's recycling program," as a painless way to earn the city $18 million towards closing a projected $298 million budget gap.

"We
live in an age where our taxpayers don't want to pay any more taxes,
[but] our citizens can't accept less services," said Chicago's chief
financial officer, Lois Scott, in an interview Friday with WBEZ. "So we
have to find a third way forward. And we found that third way forward by
tapping into an industry and a revenue stream that's out there already,
but it's not benefitting our taxpayers."

"City Hall's estimate that municipal marketing will be worth $18
million next year initially raised questions from some aldermen, after a
similar plan last year fell flat," notes Keefe. "We are a few months
delayed in where we expected to be," Scott said. "And I think that the
taxpayers and the citizens will agree that we've made the right decision
about how to do this."

"'We did not want a repeat of the bridge
houses,' she said, referring to an earlier deal that put Bank of America
ads on a pair of historic Chicago River bridge houses last year. The
deal drew in just a few thousand dollars for the city, but was reviled
by architecture critics who said it tarnished the downtown cityscape."